WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today called on Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to explain why Iowans are having extraordinary difficulties getting passports in a reasonable time period and what the Department intends to do to help alleviate the problems. Grassley also questioned Rice about constituents and staff being given misleading and inconsistent information regarding their passports.
Grassley also stressed to Iowans that if they are planning a trip out of the country in the next 6 months, including Canada and Mexico, they should immediately begin applying for a passport.
“I don’t know, but I suspect that the current backlog is the Department’s failure to plan for an increase in passport requests. Iowans deserve answers to why it’s taking so long to process a passport when the State Department promotes a 6-8 week waiting period. People are losing thousands of dollars because they are unable to go on planned vacations or business trips,” Grassley said. “It’s especially frustrating when Iowans get incorrect and misleading information from the processing centers.”
Grassley’s constituent services representatives have been receiving a record number of concerns and complaints from Iowans about the passport services. His staff has been working through these problems over the last couple of months, but the number of complaints has drastically increased in the last several weeks.
Here’s a copy of Grassley’s letter.
June 5, 2007
Ms. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Rice:
An increasing number of Iowans are contacting me regarding their difficulties in obtaining new or upgraded passports, even when following the recommended application time. My February 26, 2007 letter to the State Department regarding the cost and availability of passports was met with no response.
The efforts of my constituents to track their cases through the publicly available hotline have yielded no results. In certain instances, hotline operators have outright misled callers by saying a passport was complete and would be mailed. When my constituents called back not having received their passport, they were told their passports had not yet even been processed. Because of the lack of response to my constituents, my staff has devoted much time and effort in communicating with our national passport processing offices regarding the status of passport cases. The New Hampshire office has responded with email notification and a case tracking number. The New Orleans branch has been especially problematic. For example, although my staff is eventually able to connect, the information they too are receiving is varied and even contradictory.
As I stated in my previous letter, I am in support of efforts to shore up our security, such as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. However, upgrades to our security must be matched with predictable output. My constituents should be able to apply within the recommended time and expect their passports to be done efficiently and correctly. At the very least, they should be able to track the progress of their case.
I would appreciate a response from your Department about the passport problems. Specifically, how have you addressed hotline operators misleading applicants? How is the caseload being better handled through the New Orleans office? Is the workload being distributed to other offices? Are you considering creating new offices? What have you done to create a fair case tracking system for applicants? When will this problem be corrected?
For the sake of all Americans, these concerns and the underlying problems experienced at the Department should not be ignored. I look forward to your expeditious response.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley